|
#1
●
11-01-2026, 12:10 PM
|
|
Keri S. Mazzuca Questioned in Baby Moses Case
Keri S. Mazzuca was sentenced to 25 years in state prison on April 18, 2025, for first-degree manslaughter in the death of the newborn boy known as Baby Moses, whose body was found in Albany, New York, in 1997. Albany County Judge Roger McDonough imposed the statutory maximum, with a concurrent sentence for tampering with physical evidence and five years of post-release supervision. Mazzuca apologized and asked for the lower end of the sentencing range; a prosecutor argued that she took little to no responsibility. The state corrections department said at the time that where she would serve the sentence was still being determined. Mazzuca pleaded guilty in Albany County Court on February 13, 2025, to first-degree manslaughter, a lesser count than the murder charge, and tampering with physical evidence, with a promised sentence of 22 to 25 years. At her plea, she admitted that soon after the birth she placed her hand over the baby's nose and mouth and wrapped him in a towel. She set the towel on fire to destroy her own fingerprints, put him in a pillowcase and left the body in a flower bed in the park. At about 7:15 a.m. on Sunday, September 7, 1997, officers were called to the Moses statue in Washington Park in Albany after a park worker digging a ditch next to a flower bed found the newborn's body wrapped in charred cloth. Police said he was less than 12 hours old and had been born alive. He weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces. Police named him Moses Washington after the statue and the park where he was found. No arrest was made in 1997, and the case went cold. Mazzuca was 25 in September 1997 and lived in the Albany, New York, area. By 2024 she was 52, lived in Altamont in Albany County and was the mother of two. She has said she did not know she was pregnant before the birth. In 2020, the Albany Police Department partnered with the Cold Case Analysis Center at the College of Saint Rose to review the case. Forensic specialists extracted a usable DNA profile from preserved evidence. In 2022, Othram was retained to develop a fuller profile, which was provided to the FBI's forensic genetic genealogy team. The search led to a relative and then to Mazzuca. Police conducted surveillance and collected discarded items from her residence to obtain a DNA sample, which identified her as the baby's mother. Investigators also identified and interviewed the baby's father, who never knew about the pregnancy. Albany detectives interviewed Mazzuca on September 6, 2024, eight days before her arrest. She confessed less than an hour into questioning. In the footage, later released by the Albany County District Attorney's Office, she told detectives "I did it" and described giving birth in her bathtub. At one point she denied burning the baby and claimed she had put the body in a bag and handed it to a random person at the park. She also said she set the baby on fire and suffocated him. At the end of the interview, detectives told her she was not being arrested that day. Albany police arrested Mazzuca on Saturday, September 14, 2024. She was arraigned in Albany County Court on charges of second-degree murder, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence, and was remanded to the county jail.
__________________ Support the site and our continued existence by upgrading to a Green Name |
|
#2
●
11-01-2026, 12:10 PM
|
|
Re: Keri S. Mazzuca Questioned in Baby Moses Case
Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.
__________________ Support the site and our continued existence by upgrading to a Green Name |